Both countries find it hard to accept that the forces of progress and regression coexist.Then there is the problem of race and politics. The political parties recently signed a compact with the CRE agreeing not to use race as a weapon But both main parties are getting twitchy Unpopularity may force Tories to play the race card. Among the wealthiest people in this country there is always more than a sprinkling of Asians who have made good And yet the exclusion of the rest has worsened. American blacks are among the richest and most powerful black people in the world. Since the failure of the criminal justice system to punish the killers of Stephen Lawrence, it is hard to find anyone in the black community who feels the law protects them.Why are there so many people in denial about these massive problems? One reason is the visible evidence of advancement: like in the United States, where many people of colour have reached positions of unimaginable power, people are turning against affirmative action even though racism remains a fact of life for the rest. Muslims are victims of blatant discrimination and harassment and can get no redress under our laws, because religion is not covered by the race relations legislation.According to the British Crime Survey there are 130,000 racially motivated incidents a year. Several black men have died in police custody; others have received huge pay-offs after alleged maltreatment by officers.

A young black motorist has just been awarded pounds 320,000 for one such incident. More of them are in prison than in higher education.There is one ethnic minority civil servant above grade 5, one national newspaper columnist, no editors, hardly any professors, judges, hospital consultants or business board members The army is riddled with racism. Research commissioned by BBC Radio 5 Live shows that a third more people, white and black and Asian, think racism is a more serious problem today than five years ago. Unemployment among black and Asian people is 19 per cent, more than double that for white people One in six young black men in London is unemployed. If we can’t break down racial barriers between people, we won’t work successfully as an organisation.” Such radical talk among such folk was unthinkable even five years ago.But this is only part of a complex story Inequality and injustice are still pervasive. “As a country,” says Mr Ayling, “we have thrived, improved and become more wealthy by taking the best of the immigrant community and utilising their skills.

Even more encouragingly, big companies now value diversity as an economic asset. The recent Race for Opportunity campaign spearheaded by Robert Ayling, chairman of British Airways, is attempting to encourage both the talent and economic potential of ethnic minority Britons. Ongoing research at the Policy Studies Institute shows that East African Asians, Chinese and Indians are outstripping whites in some fields. In spite of the collapse of the political consensus of the 1960s which led to the Act, in spite of the backlash and the deregulation of so much other employment protection, the Race Relations law has survived. In April, for example, two Asian risk assessors won pounds 29,000 each in a race discrimination case against Lloyd’s.We now have extraordinarily successful black and Asian scientists, industrialists, artists, media and sports stars They see this country as a land of opportunity.

And if things are so bad, how come that hardworking Trevor McDonald has made it, eh?It is 20 years since the Race Relations Act. The Commission for Racial Equality has just had its budget cut. Is this because the problems the CRE was designed to deal with are receding or has the cause lost popularity?Much has indeed been achieved. When Birmingham Council equality units were “downsized” in February this year, punters wrote joyful letters to the local newspaper.Government ministers such as Ann Widdecombe tirelessly propagate the heartening message that we are much better at “race relations” than those xenophobic French and Germans. White liberals – some close friends of mine, who once simply loved going to anti-apartheid rallies – have had enough, they say, of this special pleading and endless culpability The upbeat 1990s are about taking charge, not whingeing. At a public meeting, a black British journalist who agreed with him proclaimed: “Blacks need to get off their backsides and stop complaining.” Many ambitious black and Asian individuals would echo this view.A top Asian television executive claims that racism is not a problem but that “race wallahs” need to keep up the myth that it is.